Planets To Date

Tonight Danielle and Mike caught Mercury. It was observed as it closed in on Venus. The night was cloudy and so we were only able to observe it for literally a minute before we could no longer see it. To date the planets we have seen are Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. One of these mornings we will have to wake up and catch Mars.

M13: “The Great Cluster” in Hercules

Tonight Danielle found M13, “The Great Cluster” in Hercules. We observed it from our observation point up Emigration Canyon. The gibbous moon was very bright in the night sky. Using “Turn Left at Orion” as our guide, Danielle began by finding Eta Herculis. She moved the telescope in a stepping fashion moving it to the right and then down until she saw something in the finderscope. She looked into the 25mm eyepiece and was ecstatic to see that she found it. It looked exactly like the picture found in “Turn Left at Orion.” After taking turns observing, we decided to try our 10mm eyepiece. Through this eyepiece it look like an atom with a cloud of electrons. Through this eyepiece, individual stars were observable along the outer edge of the globular cluster. A sense of depth was also observed while using the 10mm eyepiece.

M92 Found

Tonight Mike found M92, a globular cluster in Hercules. It was observed from outside of our apartment. We had tried to look for it but it was not easy. Looking through the finderscope resulted in getting lost among a myriad of previously unappreciable stars. M92 was found with the help of a satellite that passed over head. Mike tracked the satellite in the finderscope and when the satellite was in the neighborhood of where M92 should be Danielle told Mike to stop. Mike observed a faint fuzzy object in the finderscope and centered the crosshairs on it. He looked in the telescope and discovered a small but unmistakable ball of light. It was somewhat fuzzy and unevenly light, but was M92.

9/P Temple-1

Tonight Danielle and Mike found the comet Temple-1. It was found with the help of Sky and Telescope’s guide to finding Temple-1. It was mostly a chance observance because neither Danielle or Mike had viewed a comet and didn’t know what to look for. Mike observed a brownish-gray teardrop shape about the size of a watermelon seed. They were happy to find out later that Temple-1 was described looking like a watermelon seed by astronomers who photographed it.